India to push for GST implementation this year

2014/15 Indian GST

Indian GST has been promised for over 10 years as a way to streamline the existing inefficient Indian VAT regime. Aside from being highly complex and time consuming, VAT creates many instances of double taxation across the Indian states.

Following the recent BJP victory at the national elections, as expected, the reform-minded government is looking for the process to be kick started, and agreement to be reached between Central and the States. The Central Bank of India forecasts a fully functional GST system could deliver up to 1.5% increase in GDP. This will be especially welcome as India struggles to keep up with China's much higher growth rates.

Thursday’s budget announced a plan to aim for implementation in 2014/15.

Richard Asquith is VP Global Indirect Tax at Avalara, helping businesses understand their compliance obligations as they grow globally. He is part of the European leadership team which this year won International Tax Review's Tax Technology Firm of the Year. Richard qualified as an accountant with KPMG in the UK, and went on to work in Hungary, Russia and France with EY.